ARP 747: Educational Leadership in a Diverse Society

Personal Cultural Narrative

Danny Oliveira
San Diego State University

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When I reflect on my personal cultural background, I take pride in my
heritage as a Portuguese-American. In particular, my familys history as
Azorean Portuguese immigrants to the United States. Ive been fortunate to
visit the homeland of my familys roots, and I look forward to visiting on a
regular basis throughout my life. Although I wasnt born there, I feel a real
connection to this distant spec of land that I have always looked for on
globes and world maps since I was a child. It is such a small place that I still
remember it not being on every globe and how it made me feel like the
Azores were insignificant in the grand scope of the world.
My mother and father grew up together in Ribeira Seca, a small village
on the island of So Jorge, in the Azores Islands. The Azores are an
autonomous region of Portugal in the North Atlantic Ocean. It is about 850
miles west of mainland Portugal and 2,000 miles east of Boston, MA. My
mother was the fifth of eight siblings and studied to become a schoolteacher
in the Azores. My father was the eldest son of nine siblings and was drafted
into the Portuguese army as a teenager and fought in the Portuguese
colonial war in Guinea, Africa. Upon his return to So Jorge in 1968, my
parents were married and they soon immigrated to California with the rest of
my mothers family. They began their life in America in the San Joaquin
Valley in Central California where my dad worked on several dairy farms in
the region such as Merced, Gustine, and Los Banos. They moved around a
lot from the time I was born in 1969 until I was two. We eventually settled in

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Watsonville, California where my younger brother was born and my parents
have lived there ever since. My fathers family soon emigrated to the U.S. as
well. With the exception of his three eldest sisters who studied nursing in
Lisbon and later married and settled in mainland Portugal, my grandparents
and the rest of my aunts and uncles first lived in Boston for a few years
before moving to California.
My entire family was part of a wave of immigration to California from
the Azores that began in the mid-60s through the mid-80s. This generation
of Azorean immigrants settled in the same communities that were
established by an earlier wave of Azoreans that came to California between
the 1850s through the 1920s. They were initially attracted by the gold rush
and the whaling industry in the late 1800s. They established communities in
Oakland, San Leandro, Sacramento, San Jose, San Diego, and many small
towns in the central valley. The Portuguese in California were involved
primarily in fishing, agriculture, and dairy farming. They established
fraternal societies that provided insurance benefits for families in the case of
a death. These societies provided a community where Portuguese people
could speak in their native language and maintain their culture and practice
their cultural traditions. Their cultural traditions are focused primarily
around the Catholic religion and festivals celebrating the Holy Spirit, also
known as festa do espirito santo. Most of the Portuguese societies in
California built Halls in their communities where families congregate for

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dances, community feasts, and various festas throughout the year. These
communities were relatively small in the early half of the 20th century. With
the new influx of immigrants from my parents generation, these Portuguese
communities in California grew exponentially.
My mothers father had siblings who came to California in the 1920s
and settled in the central valley. When my parents and mothers family
arrived in California, they stayed with relatives in Gustine and quickly
adjusted to life in America by joining the local Portuguese society and
becoming part of the local Portuguese community. Each community
traditionally hosts their festa on a specific weekend during the spring and
summer months. Unlike the relative isolation of their small islands in the
Azores, Portuguese in Northern California could travel every weekend to the
town in which a festa was being hosted and congregate with hundreds and
sometimes thousands of other Portuguese immigrants at the largest festas in
San Jose. This mobility and cultural familiarity enabled Portuguese
immigrants to stay connected to their friends and families from their home
islands as well as form lasting bonds and relationships in their own
communities as well as throughout the region. When I was young, we would
often travel all over the central valley and Bay Area to festas on weekends.
My dad seemed to know lots of people everywhere we went.
There were a lot of Portuguese from So Jorge in Watsonville. Through
these connections, everyone in the family was able to find work in the

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community. My grandfather and aunts and uncles worked in a nursery. My
mom worked at a textile factory with several other women from her home
village. My dad found a job as a truck driver at a company where one of his
friends worked. The local Portuguese community was very tight knit. Many
of my closest friends were other Portuguese kids of my own age in
Watsonville. We would attend mass at a catholic church where the pastor
was Portuguese. My grandfather played the organ in this church for many
years. My dad was president of the Watsonville society for a year, as were
most of his friends. When I was growing up, it seemed like every weekend
was a party of some sort. Whether we were traveling to a festa in another
town or hosting one in Watsonville, visiting family or friends in other towns or
just staying home, we were always surrounded by Portuguese people. My
dad eventually learned English but my grandparents never needed to. I
distinctly remember my first day of school in first grade. I didnt speak a
word of English and cried all morning because I couldnt understand my
teacher. We were enveloped in our Portuguese community in Watsonville
and I had never interacted with anyone else until I started school at six years
old.
Although Watsonville has a large and vibrant Portuguese community,
the majority of the local population was Mexican. Watsonville is a farm town
in Santa Cruz County. When I was young there were apple orchards
surrounding the town. Later the orchards were replaced with strawberry

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fields and raspberry fields. Most of the workers on these farms were migrant
farm workers from Mexico. Although there were a lot of Portuguese families
in town, there werent that many Portuguese kids at my school. Most of my
friends at school were Mexican and a few Filipinos, Japanese, and white
Americans. When I was nine years old, I started playing soccer. My brother
and I and a few other kids were Portuguese but the majority of my
teammates were Mexican. As I grew older and continued to play soccer
through high school and community college, I found myself to be the only
non-Mexican on most of my teams. Since I spent three days a week or more
with my teammates, many of my closest friends were Mexican. Many of
them didnt speak much English, and since Portuguese is very similar to
Spanish, I learned Spanish and English early in life and speak all three
languages fluently. In high school I was on the college prep track so my
classes were as diverse as they come in Watsonville. Although Portuguese is
of the Caucasian race, I never identified as being white. My white friends
saw us as a distinct Portuguese category, as we did ourselves. My cultural
identity began to blur during high school between my Portuguese roots in my
home life, a Latino/hybrid identity as a soccer player in Watsonville, and a
Portuguese-American on track for a college education.
In high school and college, nearly all of the girls that I dated were
Latinas. I spent most of my time at my community college with my Latino
soccer teammates or other Latino friends. One of my best friends joined a

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Latino-based fraternity in college. When I transferred to San Diego State, I
found the same fraternity and immediately felt a strong connection. I didnt
encounter any Portuguese people on campus. Although I tried going to the
festa in San Diego, the community here is very different because there are
not many immigrants from my parents generation. Most of the people my
age dont speak Portuguese and are mixed race. I just didnt identify well
with this community and didnt know anyone here. Besides, I spent most of
my time on campus at SDSU and fit in best with the Latino friends that I
made who were very much like most of my friends back home.
As a member of Nu Alpha Kappa, I interacted mostly with other Latinos
and came to identify as Latino in many ways. Although my brothers
appreciated my Portuguese heritage and culture, most other people
associated me as a Latino because Im a NAK. I connected with my Latino
brothers on many levels as a first generation college student and a son of an
immigrant family. My socioeconomic background was similar to most of my
friends as well. During my undergrad years at SDSU, my identity was largely
shaped by my affiliation with this organization. This is where I felt my sense
of belonging at this university. This is where my leadership skills blossomed.
This is where my social skills and social stature grew.
During my undergraduate years, my fraternity as well as other
culturally-based fraternities and sororities at SDSU were not recognized and
served in the same way as the traditional IFC and Panhellenic organizations

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were. I spearheaded a movement to unite the cultural organizations to
petition for equity in the Greek community. My fraternity worked together
with 2 multicultural sororities and a multicultural fraternity to form the
United Sorority and Fraternity Council (USFC) and petitioned the Vice
President for Student Affairs to recognize our council in the same way that
the other councils were recognized and served by professional staff. He
formed a Greek Life Task Force made of various stakeholders in the university
and Greek community including the historically African-American Greek
organizations. The year that I served as a representative on this Task Force
was my introduction to Student Affairs. I learned to advocate for our rights
and needs as student organizations while interacting with other student
leaders, alumni, and professional staff. The end result of the Task Force was
full and equal recognition and representation of the USFC and the NPHC. A
new full-time staff position was created for an Assistant Coordinator of
Fraternity and Sorority Life. I applied for the job and was hired. Among the
tasks I accomplished in my first year was the addition of the Asian-based
Greek organizations and other Latino-based organizations that had not
initially joined us in the USFC. I was also the advisor for the NPHC which was
a big learning curve. These organizations have deep roots and have been in
existence for generations. Although the SDSU chapters at the time were
only recently rechartered, there was a lot of alumni presence and
involvement in the community. I had to develop my credibility and trust with

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African-American students as well as professionals. This was daunting in
many ways. Not the least of which was my lack of experience interacting
with African-Americans on a regular basis. My cultural competency was
stretched and grew tremendously in my new role. I believe I was successful
in gaining the trust and cooperation of all of the organizations and students
that I worked with in both councils.
My position as a Greek Advisor gave me a valuable opportunity for
cross-cultural interaction and appreciation. I did my best to immerse myself
in Asian-American culture by attending their fraternity and sorority events
and becoming an advisor for one of the sororities and helping students
establish a new Asian-Pacific Islander fraternity on campus. I was relatively
successful in advocating for cross cultural interaction among the
organizations and students in the USFC. The greater challenge was
encouraging cross cultural interaction between IFC/Panhellenic and the USFC
and NPHC. This was a bigger challenge because they didnt meet regularly
for council business. These students were not part of one anothers social
circles. They generally operated independently of each other. There was no
real incentive to interact and step out of their comfort zones. The only real
opportunity to do so was by making the traditional Greek Week activities
fully inclusive of all four councils. Although they were reluctant at first, over
the years we became more successful and real interaction began to happen
organically. The annual TEAM retreat for all chapter presidents and council

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officers also helped to a lesser degree because the student leaders had an
opportunity to interact with each other for a weekend. But this didnt
necessarily equate to real cross-cultural understanding and appreciation until
the organizations themselves voluntarily sought it out during Greek Week.
During my seven years as the Assistant Coordinator of Fraternity and
Sorority Life at SDSU, many campuses throughout California contacted me
for assistance in developing their own Multicultural Greek Council, as our
USFC was the first of its kind. It is very humbling and gives me great pride in
knowing that I was influential in a movement that not only impacted my own
campus but many others as well. I was hired by San Jose State University as
a Coordinator of Fraternity and Sorority Life to duplicate the initiatives and
community building efforts that were successful at SDSU. I worked there for
two years and enjoyed the satisfaction of making a great impact on their
campus as well. The cross cultural interaction was even more genuine and
natural in San Jose because the campus community and the Greek
organizations are more culturally diverse than they are in San Diego.
After two years, I decided to return to San Diego and become a teacher
in the Sweetwater Union High School District in Chula Vista. I worked at
three middle schools in the district with very diverse student populations. I
was able to connect well with my students and their parents. My fluency in
Spanish and my experience in interacting with Asian-Americans and AfricanAmericans as well as my life experiences in the Latino community were

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instrumental in my cultural competency that has helped me to be successful
in my profession as an educator in California. After five years of teaching, I
realized that I simply didnt have the passion to teach science nor attempt to
manage pre-teen behavior in a classroom.
I returned to SDSU to complete the masters degree that I started when
I was on staff as a Greek Advisor. My passion really is in higher education
and mentoring students in their personal development. My goal is to work in
EOP and Ethnic Affairs as an EOP Counselor. I want to assist in the
recruitment and retention of first generation college students like myself. I
believe my life experiences and professional experiences have prepared me
to be very successful in this work.
As I reflect on my cultural identities and experiences, I must be aware
of the various degrees of privilege that I have. As a heterosexual ablebodied male of European heritage with a college degree, I enjoy a lot of
privilege that many people in our society do not enjoy in the same way that I
do. Although I believe that I have developed a certain degree of cultural
competency through my life experiences, I realize that I can and must
continue to strive to increase that cultural competency on an ongoing basis.
I must be aware of my privilege and acknowledge it when appropriate. I
must continue to seek cross-cultural interaction and appreciation and foster
the same desire for learning in my peers and students who I will work with.